designs by jmdt

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Happy New Year 2014 to one and all in digi-scrapbook land! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Holiday Season and are easing back into your normal routine.

I recently received an email inquiry about my mini-kit Magical Moonrise. So for Lisa and anyone else who may have missed it the first time around, I've brought it back once again - free to download for a limited time.

The kit consists of 5 12x12 inch papers, 2 solids and 3 patterned. The 12 elements are a frame, 2 paper flowers, a paper sprig of foliage, a knotted ribbon, a tied ribbon, a button, a journal tag, a glitter ribbon, a glass moon, a glass star banner and a sprinkle. All papers and elements were created at 300 ppi and are suitable for printing.

Monday, October 21, 2013

I have a CU (commercial use) freebie for you today. It's a pack of 5 12x12 desaturated grunge overlays created at 300 ppi. Use them with any graphics program that supports layers (i.e. Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, PSP). Just place them in a layer over your paper or element and adjust the blend mode and --- voila, instant grunge and interest.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

I created a mini-kit for the October color challenge at theStudio [link]. It's a fun little kit called the Spider's Parlor. I love the color palette that Diane chose and I was further inspired by the awesome CU spider being offered by Tracy of ambowife designs (a designer at theStudio). It made me think of the children's poem "The Spider and the Fly" and the line "Welcome to my parlor," said the spider to the fly. Luckily I was able to find an awesome photo of fly. Once that was extracted, I had both of the main characters to create the kit!

In my mind, the spider's parlor was a little old-fashioned with furnishings just a little past their prime. That's the look and feel that I was going for. You get 6 papers and 18 elements. And as a bonus, I added a pre-shadowed cluster. The elements are: a frame, a ribbon, a bow, 2 paint splatters, a brad, a button, a lit candle, a pewter plate, 2 flowers, a leaf, a journal block, an old shoe, an old blouse, a feathered hat and the two stars of the kit: the spider with it's web and the fly!

Friday, September 20, 2013

It's week 3 of the Next Designer Contest at the DigitalScrapbookingStudio and I once again entered with another mini-kit. This is the round where no commercial use products are allowed. In other words, the kit needs to be created from scratch with just the standard features of your software program(s) and your photos. This year CU4CU products (brushes, patterns, etc) were allowed as well, But I don't own these (at least not ones that would be applicable to the theme I chose). So I wound up using my own brushes, patterns, textures and layer styles in combination with the standard brushs, shapes, patterns, textures, filters and tools built into the software.

The theme for this round had to center around a "Stay-cation." I chose to create a kit suitable for genealogist/family historians with a focus on scrapping cemetery gravestones. But I think it is versatile enough for any type of heritage page and possibly even baptism/christening, confirmation, etc.

There are 8 papers and 16 elements. The elements are: 2 frames (one with "glass"), a ribbon, a bow, 3 balls, an ornamental stone disk, a stone cross, a tombstone, a flower, 2 foliage sprigs, chalk lines, a stack of old books and a journal card. The frames, journal card, chalk, and metal button on the ribbon were all computer-generated with some using scanned textures. The other elements were scanned and/or photographed and extracted. The graphics programs I used were Photoshop, ArtRage and LiveBrush - but primarily Photoshop.

The kit is pictured below and is free for a limited time.

Download links are available at the DSS gallery here: [link]. Sorry, link expired.

Thanks for looking and don't forget to check out the other great kits while you are there!

Saturday, September 14, 2013

I was absolutely thrilled to do so well in the last week's NDC at the DigitalScrapbookingStudio, and entered again this week. The theme for this week was beach getaway and the requirements were to make a mini kit with 8 papers, 17 elements and 3 clusters. We also had to chose a beach photo for inspiration and the creation of a palette.

I had a hard time getting started with this because I didn't want it to be a re-hash of my "Sailor's Moon" kit from last year. So I really did my best to avoid using the same or very similar elements - which was a little hard to do as I was looking through my beach-y photos and stash!

My inspiration photo of the Salty Dog is one that I took when we were at Hilton Head, South Carolina back in the summer of 2008. In keeping with that, I was going for slightly shabby and weather-worn -- but still a little sparkly!

There are 8 papers, 5 painterly/patterned and 3 in coordinating solids. The 17 elements are: 2 frames, 3 flowers, a grass sprout, a foliage sprig, a tag, intertwined ropes, a ribbon, a nest, a shell, driftwood, a letter in a bottle, dangling shell charms, a glitter spray and a sand splat.

There are also 2 frame clusters and a driftwood cluster. All are pre-shadowed.

If you like it the download links are in my description on the gallery page at DSS [link]. Sorry, link expired.

Grab it soon because it will only be available for a short time. You can also grab some of the other great kits while you are there!

Friday, September 6, 2013

Yes, I haven't posted here since the beginning of the year... But I'm back now with a new free-for-a-limited time mini!

This is another one for the next designer contest at the DigitalScrapbookingStudio. A color palette was provided plus the theme of "Road Trip." Also required exactly 12 elements and 5 papers (3 patterned and 2 solid).

My take on this was a leisurely drive on a Sunday afternoon. No highways, staying on the back country roads where there are more farms and fields than houses. And you just never know what treasures you may find! Thus the kit: Back Road Treasures.

What you get is five papers, 2 "painterly" and one more traditionally patterned and 2 textured solids.

The 12 elements are a battered wood frame, a green grill, a car, a berry sprig cluster, a paper flower cluster, a battered road sign, a cluster of 2 glass bottles, a butterfly, a mulberry paper tag, a stitched and pleated ribbon, a strip of washi tape and a "textury" paint smear.

The paint smear was created in ArtRage, the other papers and elements were made using Photoshop CS5. My biggest challenge with this kit was the transparency on the glass bottles. Hopefully I achieved something close to realism! And without further ado, here's a preview of the kit.

To download, you will need to go to the gallery at the studio [link] where download links for skydrive are provided. Sorry, link expired.

Friday, January 4, 2013

I've been in a bit of a scrapbooking slump lately. Just was having a hard time getting inspired and motivated to create anything. But hopefully that is turning around. We recently went to the Poconos to visit relatives and I took some photos of the lake and the woods blanketed in snow. I love the silvery/white/grey winter themed scrap kits and decided to create one of my own. It's a work in progress that I'm calling Winter Dream. I just couldn't resist making a New Year's card with it. So here's the card along with a belated New Year's greeting to all!

Welcome!!

Welcome to designs-by-jmdt! This is where you will find my blog freebies as well as occasional posts on digital scrapbooking related topics.

Regarding Freebies:

I have recently made some changes and now post the new freebies I create on skydrive. It is a direct download site without annoying waiting times or severely throttled download speeds. Due in part to limited storage on that site, my freebies are only available for a limited time - anywhere from a week to a month. I try to have at least one freebie available at any given time. In addition, the small mini-kits that I have made for blog trains remain available indefinitely, with older ones being hosted on 4shared. To quickly find the currently available freebies, scroll down to the Labels Menu and click on freebie. Hope this clarifies. Enjoy!

About Me

Hi! I am a married Mom of three. I worked for many years in the computer world - designing, programming, testing and even training. Since my youngest was born, I have been a SAHM. I got bitten by the genealogy bug in 2003 when my daughter needed information on our ancestors for a school project -- and I've been actively researching ever since. Once I accumulated a fair amount of genealogical data, I delved into the world of digital scrapbook design in order to document our family history (both current and past!). In addition to genealogy and scrapbook design, my hobbies include website design and geo-caching.